Thursday, January 27, 2011

the HK

On a post-it:

﻿HK

Elkins

Ansonia

Accused of "working together too much." Three phrases in each of our half page outlines bore striking resemblance to the other two outlines. You caught us, Professor Harris. All along, we schemed to write one brief jointly between the three of us, make three copies and each turn one into you with our own name on top. We threw pennies daily into Buckingham Fountain wishing that you would never notice. But alas, our wishes did not come true.

Called into the professor's office, we received a lecture on Kent's code of conduct policy regarding academic dishonesty.

"But, Professor Harris, you told us to work together to develop a rough outline, " Ansonia inquired.

"Well, Ansonia, I may have said that, but that's not what I meant. I didn't mean for any of you to write anything down while you were together. I just meant for you to have some in-depth discussions about the specifics of the case and formulate a general outline in discussion. You weren't supposed to write down anything while you were all three together. I don't want to read three of the same briefs."

"We just wrote down some sentences to help develop our ideas. The briefs are thirty pages. I hardly think three sentences will result in identical briefs," HK explained.

"Writing identical briefs is not the point. The point is that Kent has a very strict code of conduct regarding academic dishonesty. Have I made myself clear?"

Absolutely. Not.

Since then, HK and I have made salmon burgers, attempted to fry tempura and coconut shrimp, and created a feast for last year's Superbowl. And, of course, who could forget the crawfish.

We also enjoy stealing recipes from each other . . .

HK and Joel invited me over for ﻿dinner a few weeks back and made wonderful tostones. I'm not sure if the crunchy sweet plaintain or the mouth watering roasted garlic aioli began my tostones obsession. In any event, I was hooked. So, I stole her recipe and turned it into a taco. This delicious taco features tostones, roasted poblano peppers, lime aioli, queso fresco and mole sauce:

Heat enough oil for frying on medium heat. Remove plantain peel and cut plantains into 1 inch tall cylinders. Fry until the bottom is golden brown. Flip each plantain piece and fry until the other side is golden brown.

Remove from oil. Smash each plantain with the bottom of a glass until flattened and about 1/4 inch thick. Return to oil and fry until the inner parts of the plantain are also golden brown. Remove. Tostones!

Serve the tostones in a tortilla with roasted poblano peppers, aoili (recipe below), mole (recipe below) and top with queso fresco. Note, that the partially ripe plantains will turn into sweeter and softer tostones than the unripe, green, ones.

aioli

3 heads of garlic

juice from 2 limes

about 1/3 c olive oil

Chop of top of garlic so that each clove is exposed. Drizzle with olive oil. Wrap in tin foil. Bake in the oven at 325 for 1 hour.

After letting the garlic cool, squeeze out the cloves into a bowl. Add the lime juice. Add enough olive oil to create a pasty sauce.

This serves as a delicious dip for the tostones. This is how HK served the tostones when I had dinner over at her house. Dangerously addicting.

﻿

mole (mol-ay) sauce

by ciao at food.com

4 1/2cups chicken broth

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cupfinely chopped onion

3 tablespoonschopped garlic

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 1/2tablespoons chili powder

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (recommended: Hershey Special Dark, it has a sweetness that mellows the sauce)

Heat oil in a large saucepan over med-low heat.Add onion, garlic, oregano, cumin and cinnamon.Cover and cook until onion is almost tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.